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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Really Lloyd Wilson, you are a dark horse. You have let us rumble on about hedgehogs (although I am really proud of my clever sister and nephews for managing to breed theirs) without letting on that you have a hedgehog blog par excellence. I would seriously urge anyone who has even the slightest interest in the cutest of our native insectivores to go and have a gander at Gavin's blog. It is marvellous:

While here I would like to publically thank Gavin for all that he does for us. He is a smashing bloke and works terribly hard running the CFZ Newsblog each day. Gavin dude, I am not gonna say that you will get your reward in Heaven. Unlike my brother I am not a theologist and don't intend to become one. However, this I can promise you. Come and visit us sometime soon and you will get your reward in Devon because I will buy you several drinks and I am sure that my darling wife will make some of her most sumptious cakes...

Before his computer went belly up a few weeks ago Glen Vaudrey promised us some photographs from the process of making his fake "Water Blackfella" pictures.

Here, finally, and for the first time we see a glimpse behind the magick...

What a clever fellow he is.

By the way (shameless plug time) I am currently typesetting Glen's book Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland: The Western Isles and jolly good it is too. This really is shaping up to be a smashing series.

Thank you to everyone, especially Alan Friswell, who solved my conundrum of yesterday. The mermaid, which was supposedly washed up off the coast of Mexico was a complex creation of artist Juan Cabanos, a man of whom I had never heard before. He writes:

I created this 5 foot long mermaid using a human skeleton and covering the entire corpse with real fish skin. The fins and teeth are also authentic and derived from fish. Unknown persons took my photos and used them to create stories of finding this mermaid in various locations around the world. A newsreporter in Mexico sent me the actual newspaper reports (shown below) of my mermaid being discovered off the coast of Campeche.

I have known Kithra for years, and she has been a valued colleague in the investigation of some of Cornwall's most enduring mysteries. But it never occurred to me that she might find Tim's ongoing saga of big cat hunters and buffoonery as amusing as I do. She writes:

Over at the CFZ Blogspot long time contributor Tim Matthews is writing an extremely funny spoof about Big Cat hunters. His imaginary tale has run to three parts so far, and is set to continue for as long as he believes it to be amusing.As for it being amusing, it’s so hilarious that I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read the episodes.

A FEW WEEKS AGO WE ASKED VARIOUS BLOGGO REGULARS TO TELL US WHAT WERE THEIR TOP THREE FAVOURITE MYSTERY ANIMALS... AND WHY

As much as I would love to talk about cryptid cockroaches and beetles, sadly there is a deficit of information on any of these. A bit sad really that by the general crypto-crowd anything weighing less than 5kg or not being the largest species in its group is ignored and neglected. It is also very true that the small animals are where the most success will be had in finding and describing new species, but, I expect this would all be too easy. So, without further pratting around, here we have my big three.

1. Lake Iliamna’s giant fish. This huge lake is the 7th largest in the US, but for years there have been gigantic fish reported, each one usually over 20ft long with long bodies, fish-like tails and a dull aluminium sheen. Sightings are infrequently reported, but each time they are it is usually by wildlife biologists, pilots, sport fishermen or locals; all people that you would expect to either get a good view, or know what they are talking about. The best theory describing what they are is that they are huge sturgeon; ancient fish, so well adapted to their life style that they have not really changed for hundreds of millions of years. The largest species, the beluga sturgeon, used to get to 20ft long, but this size is not considered to be wholly viable these days as the largest ones have all been fished out. Weights of over one ton were recorded, but a large one for a fisherman to bag currently would be a couple of hundered kilos; still very large fish. The largest supposed size was nearly 3 tons!, about twice the size of an average hippo. It’s sheer size would make the beluga the best candidate for the giant fish, but...

Beluga are a Eurasian species, and do not occur in North America. There is an American version of the beluga though, the white sturgeon, which the record catch stands at 800kg from 1912. A fish half this size was found dead on the shore of Lake Washington in 1987, so big specimens are still out there. White sturgeon are found in other Alaskan lakes, so thus I think the explanation for the giants is this:

In the last interglacial period, rising water levels allowed some white sturgeon to enter into Lake Iliamana. They were locked in when the water level fell , and here in isolation they have grown huge. The lake’s massive size means that there is easily enough food to support huge fish, and a lack of predation (particularly from humans) has allowed the fish to get above their maximum size thanks to a large fish and crustacean population (there are few certified fish above 4 feet in the lake), allowing the sturgeon to eat their fill of fish. At the sizes they are, they will be ancient fish, lurking in the lake depths out of the reach of anglers. They have got to be the most interesting freshwater cryptid out there, mainly because a very rational explanation can be found which leaves no loose ends.

2. And now, a cryptid that hid for over 100 years, which was found with the use of modern technology and patients. In 1862, Darwin himself examined a species of orchid, which, because it held it’s nectar at the end of a very very long tube, could only have been pollinated by a moth with a proboscis 12” long. He was ridiculed by his peers for his suggestion, but he still held on to his idea. The trouble was, the species may have died out before it’s discovery; only 10% of Madagascar’s (where the orchid was found) forest remains, so any population of the moth must be tiny. But modern day scientists are certain that this is the only way that the plant could be pollinated. Indeed, 41 years after Darwin’s prediction, the moth was captured and named Xanthopan morgani praedicta, praedicta after Darwin’s prediction.

Obviously, this is a superb cryptozoological success story, but it ends not here. In 1991 it was hypothesised that a moth with a proboscis 15” long must exist due to an orchid with an even longer pollen tube. The orchid and the moth come from Madagascar, and hopefully the moth will indeed be found, someday.

3. Finally, another cryptid which is certain to exist, the Alien Big Cat. When I first got involved with researching these animals I set out to get hold of some pretty definitive evidence for their existence. It didn’t really take long to get it! Livestock kills, too clean for a dog and of animals too big for a badger or fox to bother with, are the best evidence of their existence that can be commonly found. Yes, everyone wants to take “that” photo, but it is going to be hard to get. Next year, when I have got hold of a pretty serious lens for my camera, I intend to be doing a lot of staking out, sat in freezing cold fields looking out for big cats!

Looking at the evidence that I have accumulated, one or two kills seem to be very categorical to me. The first was the kill I found at Stoke St. Michael, in the field next to the one in which most of the kills had been in. When I found the body, the abdomen was still warm and the eyes had not been taken out yet, suggesting a very resent kill. The neck was pulled back over the spine and there was a gaping hole in the abdomen, from which most of the vital organs had been removed. But, there was no mess. The body had not been dragged anywhere, and the legs and head had not been damaged in any way. A dog would not have been so clean cut.

The other was a deer kill. Again, the neck was bent back over the spine and the eyes were intact. Again, the body was warm. Some of the meat from the leg had been removed, but fur from the body had been taken off to leave a hole of skin intact. The cat had been disturbed and had left the deer where it was. If it had not been disturbed, more fur would have been removed and a hole to the internal organs would have been opened up. A dog would not have bothered pratting around and would have just opened the abdomen right up.

The reason that few good pieces of photographic evidence exist is because the photographers who want to take a photo go about it in completely the wrong way, and the general public who are most likely to see a cat don’t often carry a camera around with them, or in the short time they see the cat they are too shocked to take a photo. With technology advancing however, it will not be long until a proper photo comes to life.

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CFZ APPEAL

In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.

This year's CFZ appeal is to raise money for their two families. Please be generous.